Newly freed, 6 Cuban journalists arrive in Spain

New York, July 13,
2010—Six Cuban journalists who spent more than seven years in prison for their independent reporting and commentary arrived in Spain today in the first wave of what is expected to be an extensive release of political prisoners by the Cuban government.

“We are extremely relieved by long-overdue release of our
six Cuban colleagues,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s senior program coordinator for
the Americas. “We call on the Cuban government to provide the distressed
families of those still in jail with detailed and timely information on their promised
release. Cuban authorities should move speedily to free all of the remaining jailed
journalists.”

“I have nothing to celebrate until all my colleagues and
political prisoners are released from jail,” Pacheco Ávila told CPJ in a
telephone conversation from Madrid. He said he will not rest until the
government of President Raúl Castro grants freedom of information, including
Internet access, to all Cubans.

Pacheco Ávila thanked the Catholic Church, the Spanish
government, and international human rights groups for their advocacy. “I would
also like to especially thank CPJ for its important role in advocating for the
release of all imprisoned journalists,” he said.

Yamilé Lláñez Labrada, wife of the newly freed journalist José
Luis García Panque, told CPJ that her husband was emotional and exhausted after
his arrival in Madrid. “He couldn’t stop crying; he was happy and excited at
the same time,” said Lláñez, who spoke to CPJ from Texas, where she relocated
after her husband’s arrest.

The Catholic Church in Havana, which along with Spain had
led recent negotiations over the prisoners, announced last week that the Cuban government
had agreed to release a total of 52 political detainees. Spanish Minister of
Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos appeared to go further today, telling a
congressional committee in Madrid that all of Cuba’s political prisoners would
be released, the Spanish news agency EFE reported. Cuban human rights defenders
say there are more than 150 political prisoners in all.

Prior to today’s release, CPJ research had identified 21
journalists in Cuban prisons for their independent reporting and commentary.
All but one of the journalists had been detained in March 2003, in the massive
government crackdown on political dissent and independent journalism that came
to be known as the Black Spring.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry said today that the exiled
Cuban would have legal immigrant status with residency and work permits that
will allow them to travel and seek employment.

Below are CPJ capsule reports on the journalists who arrived
in Spain today after their release. The capsule reports are from CPJ’s annual
census of jailed journalists, conducted in December 2009. Also, see a slideshow
of the group's arrival here.

Léster
Luis González Pentón, freelanceImprisoned: March 18, 2003

A court in the central province of Villa Clara sentenced
independent freelance reporter González Pentón in April 2003 to 20 years in
prison under Article 91 of the Cuban penal code for acting against “the
independence or the territorial integrity of the state.”

The
youngest of the imprisoned Cuban journalists, González Pentón, 32, was being
held in 2009 at La Pendiente Prison in the northern city of Santa Clara,
according to news reports and CPJ interviews. González Pentón suffered from
stomach problems, according to Laura Pollán Toledo, a human rights activist and
wife of imprisoned journalist Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez. He was allowed
occasional visits to his home for good behavior, she said.

Ruiz Hernández, a reporter for the Havana-based independent
news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro in the province of Villa Clara, was
arrested on March 19, 2003, during the massive crackdown on the island’s
dissidents and independent press. He was sentenced in April to 18 years in
prison for acting “against the independence or the territorial integrity of the
state” under Article 91 of the Cuban penal code.

The
reporter, 62, was being held in Nieves Morejón Prison in the central province
of Sancti Spíritus, 40 miles (65 kilometers) from his home, his wife, Bárbara
Maritza Rojo Arias, told CPJ. He shared quarters with 11 prisoners in a small
barracks, she said. The quarters, which he was rarely permitted to leave, had
no ventilation and poor lighting. Rojo Arias said other living
conditions—including his meals—improved at the prison over the course of 2009.
He was allowed a family visit of two hours every two months, his wife told CPJ.

Ruiz
Hernández suffered from depression and loss of eyesight. He was also diagnosed
with high blood pressure, circulatory problems, and chronic gastrointestinal
ailments. Rojo Arias told CPJ that her husband was being treated by prison
doctors and that she was allowed to provide him with additional medication.

Julio
César Gálvez Rodríguez, freelance
Imprisoned: March 18, 2003

Gálvez Rodríguez worked for government media for 24 years.
But in March 2003, as he was working as a freelance reporter in Havana, state
security agents arrested him as part of the massive crackdown. He was summarily
tried that April under Law 88 for the Protection of Cuba’s National
Independence and Economy and given a 14-year prison sentence. The People’s
Supreme Tribunal, Cuba’s highest court, upheld the decision a month later.

In
2009, Gálvez Rodríguez, 65, was being held in solitary confinement at Havana’s
Combinado del Este Prison, his partner, Irene Viera Silloy, told CPJ. She said
the journalist was allowed one family visit every two months. Gálvez Rodríguez
suffered from high cholesterol, hypertension, and respiratory problems,
according to CPJ research. Viera Silloy said he was also diagnosed with pneumonia.

Gálvez
Rodríguez continued to write from prison, Viera Silloy told CPJ. She said
prison authorities briefly revoked the journalist’s phone privileges in
September after he refused to wear a prison uniform.

José
Luis García Paneque, Libertadmprisoned: March 18, 2003

A physician by profession, García Paneque, 43, joined the
independent news agency Libertad in 1998 after being fired from his job at a
hospital in eastern Las Tunas because of his political views. In April 2003, a
Cuban court sentenced him to 24 years in prison after he was convicted of
acting “against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state”
under Article 91 of the Cuban penal code.

García
Paneque was being held at Las Mangas Prison in Granma province, according to his
wife, Yamilé Llánez Labrada. Although general prison conditions improved in
2009, she said, the reporter still shared a small cell with several other
inmates and complained of difficulty sleeping. García Paneque’s parents visited
him every 45 days, his wife told CPJ; she and her children, who moved to Texas
in 2007, talked to him on the phone monthly.

García
Paneque’s health has significantly deteriorated in prison. He has been
diagnosed with a kidney tumor, internal bleeding, chronic malnutrition, and pneumonia.
Llánez Labrada told CPJ that her husband continued to have digestive problems
and suffered from malnutrition.

On March 19, 2003, state security agents raided the home of
Pacheco Ávila, a reporter for the local independent news agency Cooperativa
Avileña de Periodistas Independientes, in central Ciego de Ávila. He was
convicted in April under Law 88 for the Protection of Cuba’s Independence and
Economy for committing acts “aiming at subverting the internal order of the
nation and destroying its political, economic, and social system,” and
sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Pacheco
Ávila, 39, was being held at Canaleta Prison in his home province, his wife,
Oleyvis García Echemendía, told CPJ. She said her husband was in generally good
health despite having been diagnosed last year with high blood pressure, acute
gastritis, and kidney problems. He was housed in a barracks with at least 30
other prisoners.

On
March 20, the sixth anniversary of Pacheco Ávila’s arrest, prison authorities
granted him a 24-hour home furlough for good behavior. In an interview with
U.S.-based Radio Martí, Pacheco Ávila said that while at home, he was able to
see his wife and 10-year-old son, and speak by phone with other jailed
reporters and family members in other parts of Cuba and abroad.

Ricardo
González Alfonso, freelance
Imprisoned: March 18, 2003

González Alfonso, a poet and screenwriter, began reporting
for Cuba’s independent press in 1995. He founded the award-winning newsmagazine
De Cuba and a Havana-based association of journalists, and then worked
as a freelance reporter and Cuba correspondent for the Paris-based press
freedom group Reporters Without Borders. He was taken into custody on March 18,
2003. In April, the Havana Provincial Tribunal found him guilty of violating
Article 91 of the Cuban penal code for “acts against the independence or the
territorial integrity of the state,” and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
That June, the People’s Supreme Tribunal Court upheld his conviction.

González
Alfonso, 59, was being held at Havana’s Combinado del Este Prison, a two-hour
car ride from his family home in the capital, his sister, Graciela
González-Degard, told CPJ. The reporter’s small, windowless cell, she said, was
hot and humid, and the prison food was poor. As punishment for his refusal to
wear a prison uniform, officials denied him religious assistance, barred his
family from bringing him clean clothes, and cut family visitation to once every
two months.

González-Degard,
who lives in New York but visited her brother in August, told CPJ that he was
in good health and spirits, though he suffered from hypertension, arthritis,
severe allergies to humidity and dust, chronic bronchitis, and several
digestive and circulatory problems. During her three-week visit to Havana, she
was followed and harassed by state security agents, she said. She also told CPJ
that González Alfonso’s two teenage sons had lost employment opportunities as a
result of his imprisonment.

Editor's note: The original version of this alert was extensively updated during the day.